Song of the Day: Hercules & Love Affair – Do You Feel The Same?

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole, is “Do You Feel The Same?” by Hercules & Love Affair from the 2014 album The Feast of the Broken Heart on Moshi Moshi.

Led by producer Andy Butler, Hercules & Love Affair’s four-on-the-floor blend of nu-disco and house grows more and more diverse with each addition to its rotating cast of characters. Butler first moved to New York to attend Sarah Lawrence College, and although he’d been musically inclined since his teens, his love for New York’s diverse music scene pushed him to pursue DJing and production even further. The 2008 release of his Antony Hegarty-featuring single “Blind” was an instant critical and club success, breaking Butler onto a larger stage with the release of his self-titled debut on DFA later that year. That album’s success led Butler to tour more extensively before crafting the project’s second album, 2011’s Blue Songs, which saw guest turns from Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke, Aerea Negrot, and Shaun Wright. For the project’s latest full-length, The Feast of the Broken Heart, Butler enlisted four new vocalists to join him and his Blue Songs collaborator Mark Pistel: John Grant, Krystie Warren, Rouge Mary, and Gustaph, who takes lead on “Do You Feel The Same?” Led by a slithering, pulsating bassline, the song picks up where the Chicago house-based Blue Songs left off, employing sleek synths and house-style piano that accentuate the song’s pristine bounce. Riding it all is Gustaph’s stellar vocal performance, which alternates between a pointed coo and a soulful cry with ease. When he sings “The next time I get to Heaven/I’ll make sure I’m not there alone” in the second verse, it makes “Do You Feel The Same?” seem less like a plea for dancefloor euphoria and more of a confident, thrilling declaration of it.

Hercules & Love Affair will be touring in Europe behind The Feast of the Broken Heart this summer, but if they announce plans to come to North America, that news will be on their website and Facebook. Below, watch a visual for “Do You Feel The Same?”.